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with an exceeding love. Thus he abode a great while, whilst, every now and then, his kinsfolk of the sea visited him, and his life was pleasant and his eye unheated [by tears].
It chanced that his uncle Salih went in one night to Julnar and saluted her; whereupon she rose and embracing him, made him sit by her side and asked him how he did, he and his mother and cousins. ‘O my sister,’ answered he, ‘they are well and in great good case, lacking nought save the sight of thy face.’ Then she set food before him and he ate, after which talk ensued between them and they spoke of Bedr Basim and his beauty and grace and symmetry and skill in horsemanship and his wit and good breeding. Now Bedr was reclining [upon a day-bed within ear-shot], and hearing his mother and uncle speak of him, he feigned sleep and listened to their talk. Presently Salih said to his sister, ‘Thy son is now seventeen years old and is unmarried, and I fear lest aught befall him and he have no son; wherefore it is my wish to marry him to a princess of the princesses of the sea, who shall be a match for him in beauty and grace.’ Quoth Julnar, ‘Name them to me, for I know them all.’
So Salih proceeded to name them to her, one by one, but to each she said, ‘This one liketh me not for my son; I will not marry him but to one who is his like in beauty and grace and wit and piety and good breeding and worth and dominion and rank and lineage.’ Quoth Salih, ‘I know none other of the daughters of the kings of the sea; for I have enumerated to thee more than an hundred girls and none of them pleaseth thee: but see, O my sister, whether thy son be asleep or no,’ So she felt Bedr and finding on him the signs of sleep, said to Salih, ‘He is asleep; what hast thou to say and what is thine object in [assuring thyself of] his sleeping?’ ‘O my sister,’
